Selma Burke, Artist born

On this date, Selma Burke born in 1900. She was an African American sculptor from Mooresville, North Carolina.

As a child she liked to whittle and model in clay but her mother insisted she get an education for a “career.” She was educated at Slater Industrial and State Normal School, now Winston-Salem State University; St. Agnes School of Nursing, Raleigh; and Women’s Medical College, Philadelphia.